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State of Customer Experience 2017

Regardless of the many ways today’s consumers can reach out to companies for service, many are still not feeling the love. The Northridge Group’s State of Customer Service Experience 2017 report, its third annual survey of more than 1,000 U.S. respondents, reveals that consumers are increasingly frustrated by how much effort is required to get the help they need from companies:

• At least 50% of consumers say they do not feel companies make it easy to contact them.
• While most consumers still prefer the phone for mission-critical issues, more than 70% experience long wait times and have trouble navigating the automated system to reach a live agent.
• As consumers migrate to digital channels, 57% of consumers frequently have trouble finding answers on a company’s website.
• And despite social media increasing as a preferred channel among consumers, 25% never even receive a response when they contact a company through social media. That’s up from 21% in 2016.

Companies are leaving money on the table and risking brand reputation by not delivering a well-executed, customer-centric service model, with 81% of consumers reporting they’d likely stop doing business with a company after a poor service experience.

Click to read the latest insights from our 2023 Customer Service Experience report.